


A Day in the Life

by oriolegirl



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-05
Updated: 2008-03-05
Packaged: 2017-10-17 11:08:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oriolegirl/pseuds/oriolegirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Library AU - John the reference librarian and his boyfriend Rodney, the IT guy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day in the Life

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/atlantis_9to5/profile)[**atlantis_9to5**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/atlantis_9to5/), prompt: the one at the library. Many thanks to my overworked beta, [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/silver_cyanne/profile)[**silver_cyanne**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/silver_cyanne/).

  
Rodney was at the Atlantis College Library's coffee cart when John walked up, travel mug in hand.

In a bid to lure undergraduates into the building, the library at Cheyenne University had added a full-fledged café on the first floor. The Atlantis Library, on Cheyenne's satellite campus, had been expected to follow suit. They didn't have access to the same funds as Cheyenne but they'd managed to scrounge up enough money for a coffee cart and a few tables and chairs.

"Fueling up for the staff meeting?" John asked, smiling at the woman behind the counter and handing her his mug.

"I hate staff meetings," Rodney said, picking up his own travel mug and inhaling before screwing on the lid. "I'm not really a library person. Why do I have to go?"

"Now, Rodney," John said, mockingly, "you know you're a valuable member of the Atlantis College Library."

Rodney was nominally part of Cheyenne's IT department and responsible for Atlantis Library's 20 public workstations and all the staff computers. The library at Cheyenne had an information commons - another bid to lure students - and an entire IT staff of its own.

Rodney snorted. "Right. Whatever. Like I really care what old book Ronon repaired this week or how Teyla is going to handle the journal cancellation project."

John collected his change and his travel mug and gestured towards the staff room. "Come on. I hear we're going to be getting some new staff."

"I don't suppose I'll be getting any help and god knows I need some. Do you know what the average undergrad can do to a public workstation?" Rodney gestured wildly; it was a good thing, John thought, his travel mug had a lid. "And did you hear what Lorne did to his computer last week? I still haven't gotten it working properly."

John had, in fact, heard in great detail about Lorne's mishap with an e-mail attachment. The poor guy had tried to open the file and instead the computer had, for all intents and purposes, freaked out. It was all Rodney had been able to talk about after work for the last few days - which made it kind of difficult for John to take Rodney out for a nice dinner and a movie. Between John having to work insane hours and Rodney dealing with a sudden explosion of IT problems, they hadn't had a real date night in a couple of months.

When they got to the staff room, all of the chairs farthest from where Sam, the head of the library, was sitting were taken. John and Rodney had no choice but to sit on either side of her.

After everyone was seated, Sam passed around the agenda and counted heads. "Where's Chuck?"

Radek, the daytime circulation supervisor, said, "He's covering the circ desk. Our student hasn't come in yet."

"Let's get started then. First, I have some news about Elizabeth. As you know, her Fulbright was for six months and we expected her to be coming back to Atlantis. However, the library in Uzbekistan was thrilled with her work and she's decided to accept their offer of a two year contract."

John and Rodney looked at each in mute horror - neither had quite understood why she'd wanted to go there to begin with - then over at Radek, who was frowning. Radek had seemed to have a bit of a crush on Elizabeth and was totally oblivious to the fact that Lorne, the evening circ supervisor, would happily push him up against the hold stacks and kiss him senseless.

"The library at Cheyenne has been doing most of the cataloging while she's been away. It's been a bit inefficient sending books there and back, so it's been decided to transfer one of the catalogers here to Atlantis. Daniel Jackson will be starting in two weeks."

John was hoping there'd be more new staff news. Cataloging was important, but John was stretched thin trying to cover the reference desk and do library instruction sessions with only the help of a library school student. Nine months ago, Ford had gone to the dark side. John had told Aiden that every librarian who'd gone to work for a vendor eventually regretted it and came crawling back to the library - the money really wasn't worth it - but Aiden had gone anyway.

"Jack O'Neill will also be transferring. He was head of reference at Cheyenne, but he's transitioning to retirement. He'll be available part-time during the day." Sam looked at John. "You can work out hours with him. Plus, we'll be getting another library school student to cover the reference desk during evening hours."

John was pleased he was going to be getting some help. But he wasn't so sure about having Jack O'Neill around. O'Neill was a little strange. Not to mention he'd been a department head. John was rather happy managing his own little department, thank you.

"Ronon," Sam said, moving on, "can you give us an update on the photo conservation program?"

John looked over at Rodney, who was slumped in his chair, staring into space. John glanced down at his copy of the agenda but there was nothing else of interest, so he tuned out the rest of the staff meeting to concentrate on his plans for his boyfriend's surprise party. Rodney was professed to hate parties, but John knew that wasn't strictly true.

After the meeting, Teyla cornered John before he could get out of the staff room. "John, it is time to renew our online subscription packages. Genii is offering a good deal on a two year subscription."

John grimaced. "Teyla, their search interface sucks. Just last week, the database listserv was full of complaints about their new, supposedly user-friendly search interface. I'd really rather we stay with Athos."

Teyla smiled. "That is fine, John. I did not care for the Genii rep who called. He was rather…." She made a moue of distaste. "I will contact Halling at Athos and renew our subscription."

"Thanks, Teyla." John smiled and made his escape.

Rodney was waiting for him outside the staff room. "Lunch?" he asked.

"Sorry," John said. "I have to get back to the reference desk. And then I've got that instruction session for Dr. Teal'c's Freshman Comp class."

Rodney sighed. "I guess I'll go back to Lorne's computer. I've managed to get Office working again, but Firefox is still being a bitch. And some stupid student who apparently can't read the great big signs," Rodney's arms waved, illustrating the size of said signs, "saying 'save your files on a USB drive' lost her term paper on Workstation 2. She was crying to Radek about it this morning so I suppose I'll have to try to find it."

"Maybe we could go out tonight," John said, tilting his head. "Dinner and a movie?"

Rodney perked up at that. "Ok. I'll take a look at the movie listings."

John leaned forward to press a quick kiss to Rodney's lips.

Rodney quickly pulled back, blushing. Looking around, he hissed, "Not in the library! Remember, we said we weren't going to do anything in the library!"

John grinned and turned towards the reference desk. "See you later, Rodney."  



End file.
